News: Social Movements

Activists from diverse social movements gathered outside Venezuela's Ministry of Energy and Mining in Caracas this morning to demand the repeal of a controversial presidential decree authorizing coal mining in the country's northwestern Perija mountain range located in Zulia state.

Venezuela testified before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Tuesday, defending the country’s advances in human rights under the Bolivarian Revolution amid allegations of abuse by opposition NGOs.

Victims of last year’s barricades and their family members have poured scorn on what they describe as a “premeditated” decision to exclude them from the OAS Summit of the America’s Forum on Civil Society and Social Actors.

Venezuelans are currently paying tribute to the life and legacy of revolutionary guerrilla leader, artist and ex-political prisoner, Paúl del Río, alias Máximo Canales, who died this past Sunday at the age of 72.

Thousands of Venezuelans gathered in the Plaza Bolívar in the center of Caracas yesterday to commemorate the second anniversary of the death of late president Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías with an 'Anti-Imperialist Peoples' Court.'

As the two-year anniversary of Hugo Chavez’s death approaches, US-based solidarity organizations rally for a nation-wide Day of Action to celebrate the late socialist leader’s legacy and condemn US intervention in Venezuelan affairs.

On February 12th, the anniversary of the start of violent anti-government protests in 2014, opposition student leaders from major universities throughout the country gathered in the Aula Magna theater of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) on Thursday to commemorate the national “Youth Day" as well as unveil their “plan of struggle for 2015."

On Friday, thousands took to the streets of the Venezuelan capital to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the toppling of the Pérez Jiménez dictatorship as well as to voice their support for the government of President Nicolás Maduro in the face of economic war and political destabilization.

Movements gathered in Caracas on Monday to demand a 30 year sentence for Sabino Romero´s murderer. They also denounced a lack of media coverage of the case, as well as the increasing presence of Colombian paramilitaries and drugs traffickers on Yukpa territory.

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro announced on Friday his staunch support of the agricultural commune El Maizal after their communal property title was revoked by a Supreme Court judge earlier that week.

VA.com’s Cory Fischer Hoffman writes a special report from the United Nations climate talks in Lima, Peru, describing the reactions of the Venezuelan government and social movements to the attempt to reach a consensus over how to address global warming.

Venezuelan communards and activists marched yesterday to demand the release of David Diaz, a leading member of an urban community project in Barqisimeto, Lara state. Diaz was arrested on 3 December and ultimately charged with “invading” private property, an accusation that his comrades feels is suspect.

Rural groups are demanding that justice be done in the cases of 178 peasant assassinations in the struggle over land ownership in Venezuela, and that humanitarian assistance be extended to victims’ families.